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Friday, November 9, 2018

Riders vs. Bombers: West Semi-Final

Playoffs baby! This is
what it’s all about. Throw the regular season results out the window because
this is one game, winner takes all and anything can happen. Actually don’t
completely throw the regular season results out the window because much of the following
analysis is based on that. Man, this is a terrible introduction even by my low
standards. It gets better from here, I promise.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday the
archrival Bombers are in town for the first ever home playoff game at new
Mosaic Stadium. It won’t quite be WSF 2013 cold but it’ll be a chilly day. I
suggest plenty of layers to keep your outsides warm and plenty of hard alcohol
to keep your insides warm. It will be fairly easy to smuggle in a bottle of
fireball or something similar because even a rigorous pat down wouldn’t find it
through all your layers. Not that I would I ever encourage or take part in that
type of thing (the booze smuggling or the rigorous pat down).

The Bombers are a good
team no doubt but I’m getting kind of sick of how much people are pumping their
tires without giving the Riders their due. People are quick to point out that
the Bombers won 5 of their last 6 games. So did the Riders. In fact they
finished 9-2 over the last 11. People are quick to point out that the last time
these 2 teams met we got embarrassed. What they conveniently leave out is that
the Riders were playing on 4 days rest. They also forget what the season series
between the teams was. People point out that the Bombers scored 28 more
offensive TDs than us. I don’t have much of a comeback to that one. It’s a fact,
ourO sucks. But let me ask you this,
would you rather 53 TDs and 3rd place or 25 TDs and a home playoff
game? I’m not saying the Bombers aren’t good, I’m not saying they can be taking
lightly but can we at least remember that the Riders are pretty good team as
well? Also, F&@# the Bombers!

In a cold playoff game
between the top 2 rushing teams in the CFL you can bet that the ground game and
the trenches will be the story of the game. Defensively its no secret that
containing Harris is priority #1. The Bombers are the #1 rushing attack but the
#6 passing attack. In the last 2 meetings the Riders actually held Harris to 73
total yards (granted in the second game it was due to them not having to run to
beat us). So we know we can do it. We are also the #2 rush defense. Winnipeg
has a great O-line but out D-line needs to flex its muscle and show they are
better. The other thing to contain is Dressler. He is the key piece in keeping
that passing game rolling. Nichols is not great on the deep ball so if you
limit Harris and contain Dressler (both easier said that done) he will
struggle… maybe not utterly embarrass himself Banjo Bowl style struggle but
struggle nonetheless. We need to create turnovers, its no secret that that’s
how we win games. I expect a conservative start to the game but you can bet
LaPolice will have some tricks in store for us. Gotta keep the Bombers under 30
points. They 2 and 7 when scoring less than 30.

Offensively… please god do
something… anything… preferably not involving either Drew Tate or Brandon
Bridge. Collaros will play the main questions are a) do we get good Zach or the
one that throws equally to both coloured jerseys? And b) will he finish the
game? My honest hope is that Collaros is not the story of the game. Our best
chance of winning lies in Cam Marshall and Marcus Thigpen. They average 6.5 and
8.5 yards per carry respectively. You want to win? Feed them the ball. Marshall
has been a beast over the past 2 and we all know what Thiggy is capable of
(remember the East Semi last year?). Bombers are #3 against the run and Bighill
can certainly shut things down but we can and should run on them. When Collaros
does throw he needs to be smart with the ball and really work those medium
passes. Use Moore’s speed, Lambert’s size and Roosevelt veteran savvy. We can’t
be afraid to push the ball downfield but we can’t live and die by the deep
shot. Like always my hope for the offense is just don’t hurt us. Control the
ball, run hard and grind out a close win. That’s our success recipe.
Santos-Knox is questionable which would be a big loss to the Bomber D.

In 3 meetings O’Shea
really didn’t pull out any tricks especially on special teams. We know that
special teams is a strength for us. The Bombers have the second worst punt
returns and kickoff returns so I have the suspicion that something is in store.
A fake punt. A reverse. Something. We are going to need to win 2 of 3 phases to
win this game. We know that offense is unlikely to be one of them so need to
win on teams.

I think this will be a
very closely contested game and lord have mercy on my heart. But I’ll give you
3 stats that I think are very telling for how this will go:

1 – The Riders are 7-3
against West teams. The Bombers are 4-6

2 – The Riders are 6-3 at
home. The Bombers are 4-5 on the road (only one road win came against a team
that made the playoffs).

3 – F*#% the Bomber!

Riders by a Thigpen TD.

See you in the stands. Be loud. Side note:Prepping for this game reminded me of the last time these 2 teams met in the West-Semi in 2003. Lots of pre-game hype about how Mike Sellers would run at will over us. He did not and Kenton Keith did the running at will. That was pretty much how playoffs went in the Barrett era. Keith would dominate the West-Semi and then teams would game plan for him in the West Final and we had no back-up plan. Any way I found some highlights on YouTube... though they aren't really highlights just a random part of the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZP2MEgp6ZU